Post by: Jami Amerine
Recently some good friends of ours had a prayer, a very important prayer, go unanswered. Well, perhaps it was answered in a way that they have yet to see. Now, in this moment, it feels unanswered. They feel as though they were not heard. They are left to grieve.
Folks offer their opinions.
“It wasn’t God’s will…”
“He has something else in mind…”
“There’s a lesson here…”
Perhaps.
As I sat with my friend over tepid, half drunk cups of English Breakfast, I listened to her lament her devastation. Not just loss, but the loss and the unanswered pleas for help to her Father in Heaven.
“Good Father?” She is left to wonder.
The conundrum of the unanswered prayer is the mystery of why we stay Believers. Why stay in love with a mysterious Higher Power who sometimes fails to use that power to dig us out… to save?
Furthermore, surely there is a human explanation? A method to the madness, a reason for this season where it seemed like such a simple request? A request that would have increased faith, instead of shattering it. Still, I sat. I listened to my friend. Her voice cracked with grief, heartbreak shattered her disputes.
She had been faithful.
She did not know how to regain what she had lost in the midst of the catastrophe – in this season of unanswered prayer.
This is the dark space. This is the place where we want to offer encouragement, but often our words seem empty, and even we, who still believe, do not understand.
Let Jesus be Jesus.
This is a new mantra of mine. For so long I have wanted someone to be able to explain Jesus to me. The last shall be first, the first shall be last. Take out your eye, cut off your hand, go and sin no more. We could go round and round. But honestly, sometimes the best answer is simply, “I just don’t know.”
Is this when the greatest wisdom is the wisdom that comes from Him fully revealing Himself as good?
I know who I think I know Him to be.
I know Him. I love Him. But I can’t make you know Him or understand Him through my simple explanations. Nor, can I fully explain the depth of Him, although I often feel protective and I feel I must defend Him.
Defend Him?
Well, yes maybe. Maybe when a prayer goes unanswered we are just as desperate to explain the “why not” to comfort ourselves too?
And this is where especially as a wordsmith who set out to write about unanswered prayer, the challenge erupts.
Silence.
A place of quiet and wait. A gap, a searching – a longing for answers that can only come in waves of revelation from the One who died so that we might live and experience a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Jesus be Jesus… show up, and be Jesus.
Show up and show us how to make sense out of the senseless. Show up and be Jesus, because no one else will do.
Jesus.
Jesus.
Jesus.
The best answer.
The hardest belief.
The easiest yes.
I don’t know why some prayers are not answered. I refuse to try and reveal something about Him – for my explanation would fall short. But the Word promises if we ask… if we seek, if we knock… and I still believe.
The way, the Truth, and the Life.
Is there any possibility He won’t reveal Himself?
Why, no.
Absolutely not.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
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About Jami Amerine
Jami Amerine is a wife, and mother to anywhere from 6-8 children. Jami and her husband Justin are active foster parents and advocates for foster care and adoption. Jami’s Sacred Ground Sticky Floors is fun, inspirational, and filled with utter lunacy with a dash of hope. Jami holds a degree in Family and Consumer Sciences (yes Home Ec.) and can cook you just about anything, but don’t ask her to sew. She also holds a Masters Degree in Education, Counseling, and Human Development. Her blog includes topics on marriage, children, babies, toddlers, learning disabilities, tweens, teens, college kids, adoption, foster care, Jesus, homeschooling, unschooling, dieting, not dieting, dieting again, chronic illness, stupid people, food allergies, and all things real life. You can find her blog at Sacred Ground Sticky Floors, follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
This is something I’ve struggled with as a dear friend lost a son . Her grief is palpable and I have no words. Well, except that one, Jesus. Well said Jami.
This is the best response to this I have ever read/heard. So many times I have felt compelled to explain/defend/excuse why He appeared not to have answered….. In my own life I have recognized His answer later (sometimes much later). I missed it before because it did not arrive in the exact “package” I had requested.
I am going to start working hard on letting Jesus be Jesus.
Thank you my friend.
I’ve struggled 7 years with this very thing but the only answer I have is Jesus hold on to Jesus when all seems no hope no rest just empty
I return to Jesus
I went through all of this. The being told it was not His will. I knew I must be doing some thing wrong. He’s teaching you something. All not true, He loved me. He suffered so I didn’t have, His promises are yes and amen, so why? The best answer I have is that we let the enemy in an steal, he builds strongholds with bad advice, teaching, doubt and unbelief, the best solution, just rest in Jesus as He said to come and do and let Him love you.
Yes Let God be God!
I have struggled with this question numerous times over the past few years! “Why would God say no to THAT prayer?” “Why would He allow this? It contradicts everything I’ve been taught about Him?” “Is this really too much to ask? Really? Of all the things he could say no to, He chose this, despite my lengthy journal entries reminding Him why I needed a yes?” To be honest, there have been moments when I’ve thought, I understand why people don’t believe. I will never STOP believing, but I get why they say, “If that’s how God operates, I’m out.”
Thank you for this reminder that sometimes all we can say is, “I don’t get know,” and trust His love.